


The Smell Before Rain

by QuinnCliff



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: (Cuz it's Johnlock so), Alternate Universe, Angst, Blow Jobs, Dark Sherlock, Everybody loves John, Friendship, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Jealous Sherlock, Love at First Sight, M/M, Manipulative Sherlock, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Obsessive Sherlock, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Possessive Sherlock, Sherlock Is A Bit Not Good, Tension, Unhealthy Relationships, Violence, Younger John, Younger Sherlock, no happy ending, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-29
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-01-21 05:26:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1539329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuinnCliff/pseuds/QuinnCliff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and some friends decide to take some time away from all the mess of Uni in a lake house. But what it was supposed to be a relaxing trip will become a living hell when they meet the mysterious local man, Sherlock Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Call me a safe bet, I'm betting I'm not

**Author's Note:**

> Hello fandom!
> 
> I'm really happy to start another Johnlock story, though this one will be darker than the others I've written, so be warned! 
> 
> Plus, this fic is not brit-picked or betad, so please forgive any mistakes of mine!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it ;*

 

The boys decided to have fun for a change. They were all stressed and drowned on papers, essays, works and reports. They felt like university was taking their life away, of course they knew it would be harder than school, but no one had an idea that it would be so suffocating. They had not been to a pub for seven months; their only contact with each other was during mutual classes or on the corridors. So it was through text messages that John and Mike invited all the boys for the trip; they accepted it without a single thought.

John got a bad grade in a discipline and exploded. He suddenly just wanted to ran away and throw all the papers at his bathtub. Mike shared his feelings, and apparently all the boys too. The plan was to be gone for one entire week. Disappear from the face of Uni. Their destination was Mike’s family lake house, that was somewhere in the countryside. Mike promised it was empty that time of the year, just like the land around it. He said there were only a few houses in the small neighbor village, no one would bother them.

So there were they in the minivan they rented. It was a five hour drive till there; John prepared sandwiches and grabbed some beers so they could snack during the way. Bill was driving, John was on the seat beside him, Mike and Henry were behind them, and Victor and Sebastian were on the last places. Queen was on the radio when they hit the road.

“So John, buggering anyone lately?” Bill asked, and all the boys reiterated in cheerful tones.

John smirked, “No, but the professors have been fucking me in the arse real nice.”

They all laughed hard. Mike almost choked on his beer, John turned around to look at him, “Are you alright, mate?”

“Fine, fine”, Mike answered all pink cheeks and flustered looking, “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“What about you, Mike?” Victor asked from behind.

“Who cares about him. John, so, you’re not seeing anyone lately?” Bill questioned giving an odd look to John.

“Bill! I care about Mike. Tell us, Mike, tell about that girl who was all over you in anatomy. She was a cute pie, wasn’t she?” John grinned at Mike, reaching his hand to touch his thigh in tease.

Mike shivered with the touch and blushed, “She was not my type.”

All the boys did a chorus of ‘oooh’, John just smiled at him. Mike loved his smile, John’s teeth were all lined and white, he had little dimples on his cheeks and chin that made it all more beautiful; John’s eyes were deep dark blue, Mike could stare at them forever; his hair was dark blond and a bit longer than usual, Mike had to hold the urge to move a lock of it away of his forehead. His thoughts were interrupted by Sebastian’s voice, “What’s your type then, mate? Boys?”

They laughed out loud again, except for John and Bill. “What’s the matter if he does?” Bill asked, his voice a bit rough.

“No matter, mate, just kiddin’.” Sebastian answered in a low tone, a bit apprehensive.

Victor was grinned, “So let’s say, Bill, if you were into boys, which of us would you date?”

The boys gave some giggles, but all waited curiously for Bill’s answer, “John.” He said simply, looking at the blond boy sat beside him. John didn’t look down but bit his lip a bit nervously. Bill’s mouth watered.

John was shorter than average, Bill was taller than average. John was not skinny, but he was far from being fat, he had an ideal weight; Bill was strong, he worked out everyday, so he was sure John’s body was going to fit in his arms perfectly. He had wanked so many times in the shower and in his bedroom thinking about John’s body writhing and quivering under his.

“I’m flattered, mate.” John said smirking sheepish at him.

“What about you, Henry? You’re way too quiet.” Victor threw a magazine at Henry’s head.

“Me w-what?” The youngest boy asked.

“Which of us would you date?” Sebastian blinked repeatedly at him, teasing.

“I dunno, mate. John I guess.” He answered with dark red cheeks. He had been honest, John was the nicest of them, he always helped him with essays, plus he didn’t mock Henry because of his panic attacks, on the opposite, he used to tell Henry everything would be fine.

Victor and Sebastian laughed, “I bet Mike would chose John too. Wouldn’t you, Mike?” Victor pushed his seat.

Mike stared outside the window for a moment before answering, “Yes”, he said simply. The boys behind him kept laughing that annoying laugh. Mike saw John glaring angrily at them.

“What about you two? I bet you would fuck each other in a blink of an eye, wouldn’t you guys? That would explain all the quick looks and sneaky hands I noticed lately. Guess that’s why you’re all asking these questions today.” John spoke in a bitter but cheerful tone, he couldn’t stand the boys laugh anymore.

Mike was clearly embarrassed, and so was Henry. Bill didn’t look shy, but he was quieter than before. And John’s name was all over the place, with Victor and Sebastian playing smart arses at the cost of others. They looked serious for the first time since the trip began, both stared at John without knowing what to say exactly. John had made everything up actually, he rarely paid any attention to these two and couldn’t care less about who they wanted to shag, but he had to make them bite their tongues. It worked.

The car was silent for a long time. The silence was only broken when someone opened a bottle or chewed a sandwich. The sun was setting, John was getting really tired. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The car was quiet and dark, which meant the environment was perfect for a nap, and the blond young really could do one. He drifted away for some minutes until he felt something sliding on his thigh. John kept his eyes closed and decided to wait. The touch was slow and light, travelling to his crotch. It felt good. Suddenly the hand closed on his cock through the jeans and squeezed. John moaned a bit, instinctively thrusting his hips in the hand’s direction.

When he opened his eyes he saw Bill alternating his look from the road to John, his left hand gave another squeezed and John groaned loud. Lucky enough the other boys seemed to be asleep. John was really hard then, he put his own hands above Bill’s and kept thrusting and moaning lightly, now staring right back at Bill. The athlete looked debauched, lips parted, he was panting heavily. John could clearly see the line of Bill’s erection traced under his trousers. With that vision John came in his pants, like a bloody teenager. But he didn’t care, he hadn’t felt that good in a while.

“That was fucking good.” John whispered. Bill reached out to touch his hair, the blond boy leaned in his hand and gave a tired kiss. “I’ll take care of it for you”, he said taking the seat belt off and unzipping Bill’s trousers, then moving his pants away only enough so he could put all of the taller boy’s hard cock in his hungry mouth.

“Oh John”, Bill moaned, his hand on John’s hair. “Fuck!”

John had given blow jobs before, two times to be more exact. Once at school, behind the bleachers, and another at Uni in the janitor’s room, it was the nearest place at the time and he had no regrets. He preferred getting head though, especially from girls, they always knew what they were doing. But John was told to be a great sucker himself, so he didn’t even gag when Bill came inside his mouth. He pull the pants back and zipped the trousers. When he leaned in his seat again, he stared at Bill and slowly cleaned his mouth.

“That was… You’re fantastic, John.” Bill said breathless.

“I think we should stop, I need to get clean. You made me come all over my pants, you know.” John said with a crooked smile, his tone was sheer tease.

“Of course, babe.” Bill told. John preferred to ignore the endearment and just nodded back.

When Bill pulled over in a gas station, John looked back and saw all boys sleeping with their mouths open, some even drooling on the seats; John sighed relieved and got out of the car, Bill followed him. He went straight to the small bathroom, for his surprise the other boy entered too and closed the door behind him, before John could say anything Bill pushed him on his back to the closest wall and started kissing him desperately. At first the small young didn’t know what to do but decided to reciprocate, why not? Snog is snog.

Bill kissed his mouth deeply, their tongues touching each other hungrily, hands everywhere. John didn’t know how long they stayed there, but he was the first to pull away when someone knocked the door. “John? Bill?” It was Mike’s voice, he knocked again.

“Bloody hell, he is a pain in the arse, isn’t he?” Bill whispered trying to get to John again, but the blond pushed him away.

“He’s nice, we couldn’t do this all night anyway”, John took a deep breath, rubbed his eyes and said, “Well, what are we going to do?”

“I’ll go out and you go after.”

“Yeah, but then Mike will know and then the boys…” John started but Bill kissed the next words away.

“Who cares? I surely don’t. I’ve been wanting you for so long, John. I don’t care what they’ll say, I just want to be with you. What do you say?” Bill seemed quite honest.

John didn’t know what to say really, he had never thought things like that about Bill. He was one of his best mates, very handsome with his brown hair and green eyes, very tall and muscled body; yes, John was attracted to him but even still he didn’t know if he wanted a relationship, when he let the sex happened it was only that, sex. He needed and Bill needed, he didn’t expect much. Before he could answer though, Mike knocked the door again. “Hello?!”

“Okay, whatever, go on, I need to clean myself before”, John spoke breathing hard.

“Fine”, Bill gave him a quick kiss on the lips and left the bathroom. John locked in the same moment, and he could hear the boys discussing outside.

John cleaned up all the mess he had made with his pants in hurried hands, he washed his face too. When he opened the door, he found Bill waiting for him with folded arms and Mike with a frown in his face, he looked upset. John felt his own cheeks turning pink, “Hey Mike.”

His friend just glared at him and then entered the bathroom. John scratched his neck nervously, Bill came closer and put an arm around his shoulders. John didn’t know what to feel about these expressions of affection, but he felt no will to pull the strong young away. Maybe he just liked to feel protected; most of the time he was the one protecting and making sure everybody was okay, ever since he was a kid.

“He is in love with you too, but don’t worry, he’ll get over it. At least I hope, for his own good”, Bill said so calmly with a cheerful tone that made John’s body shiver a bit, all the hair on his members stood up.

He was very close to Mike, they were best friends since John was a little boy in elementary school, and they even shared a flat now. John noticed that Mike was acting a bit weird for some time now, getting all blushed when John touched him or when John walked into the living room wearing nothing but a towel on his waist after the shower; Mike even had stopped seeing girls, he said they were getting him bored. But John never had an idea that was because he was in love with John, and it actually made a lot of sense. _Oh shit_.

“John? Are you okay?” Bill asked, touching his temple.

“Fine, fine, just…” He cleared his throat. _Put your shit together, man._ “Let’s just get back to the car, yeah?”

Bill nodded and John walked fast to enter the car, the other boy sat beside him. John noticed that Henry was awaken, but he had that distracted look on his face and was listening to some music on his headphones; Victor and Sebastian were still asleep, heads hanging loose and a loud snore that John wasn’t sure from who it came from. After some minutes waiting Mike arrived, seating quietly at his place and closing the car door. John looked at him, but he didn’t look back.

“Back to the road. Probably another hour and a half until we get there.” Bill said grinning at John.

John smiled back, trying to hide his discomfort, “Let’s go then.”


	2. I hope you find out what you want, I already know what I am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi people!
> 
> Thanks for the kudos/comments/bookmark! You just get me even more excited to write this fic!
> 
> Forgive any mistakes, please.  
> Hope you enjoy it ;*

 

John was looking at the stairs through the minivan window when he felt Bill’s arm around his shoulder. He didn’t like this, it was too intimate, too… Couple stuff. And they weren’t a couple, right? John couldn’t tell right now, he didn’t know what he really wanted.

“Alright?” Bill asked, concern in his voice.

John looked at him and nodded, then returned his eyes to the sky. Some seconds later Bill’s lips touched his cheek which annoyed him big deal. Were the other boys awaken or asleep? He was afraid to turn around and check it. He couldn’t stop to think about Mike. What was he thinking about John? What he really felt it? Would he still want to be friends with John? He needed to, they were best friends. When he decided to take a chance and look at Mike, the same spoke, “Stop the car! Please stop the car!”

Bill removed his arm from John’s shoulder and turned the wheel so he could park on the outside of the road, luckily it was all calm and empty. “What’s the matter, mate?” John heard Henry’s voice saying behind him.

Suddenly the car was filled with grumblings and confused noises, probably Victor and Sebastian waking up. Mike opened the door quickly and ran a few meters away from the car so he could throw up in peace. All the beer and sandwiches were down to the floor, out of his stomach. He just couldn’t handle it. All this cuddling and loving. He screwed everything up, he did it. John wasn’t the one to blame. Mike realized now that he should have had the guts to tell John how he felt before someone else did it, but he couldn’t. He was such a coward bastard. Oh, how he hated himself.

“Mike, just breathe. Take a deep breath, that’s it.” John’s voice was beside him now, but Mike’s eyes were closed, he didn’t want to stare at his best friend knowing all the things they could be.

He puked a bit more than spit the rest on the floor, disgusted with himself. John gave him a handkerchief to clean his mouth, he hesitated for an instant but then took it. He was so embarrassed, not only for his cowardice but also for being acting like a small child next to the boy he loved. “Thanks”, he said with a broken voice, tears filling his eyes.

John touched his arm and he couldn’t do anything but flinch. How was it going to be now? Should he tell John? In front of the boys? In front of Bill? What good would that do after everything? He found the courage to at least look at John. And there he was, those gentle dark blue eyes staring right through him with honest concern. “John”, he managed to say.

“Yes, mate?”

Mike looked at the car to find Bill standing outside with his back against the door, Henry was out too just watching, Victor and Sebastian had their sleepy faces looking from the window. Mike shivered a little with all this attention at him. He couldn’t say anything with all the eyes on him, that would only put John in a bad position. “I’m fine now, that was just… Malaise. I have it when I travel, it’s okay though. Seriously.” He even tried to smile a bit, but could notice John didn’t buy it.

“Really? You’re fine… Er, _we_ ’re fine?” John said the last piece in almost a whisper.

“Yes, sure, mate”, Mike gave two soft slaps on the blond boy’s shoulder. It hurt to be able to touch him like this but not like Bill did.

They walked back to the car, and all the boys were quiet again. This trip had started very well. Mike pressed his fingertips on his eyes and decided something: he was going to tell John how he felt it when they arrive at the lake house. He needed to be alone with John to do it, and he didn’t care if Bill would like it or not, he wanted to hear from his best friend that he wasn’t enough, that he didn’t love him; it would hurt like hell, but it would take a heavy weight form his chest.

The rest of the trip was silent, Bill didn’t touch John and John didn’t look at Bill. Mike kept staring outside the window; Henry just listened to his music; Victor and Sebastian did nothing but to sleep again. It was really dark when Bill finally parked on the Stamford’s garage, the only sounds around the place were the car and some crickets in the woods nearby.

“Finally”, Victor exclaimed with a loud yawn.

“Come on, let’s get the luggage. Mike, you open the door.” Bill said going out of the car.

Soon all the boys were out caring their baggage and heading to the main door of the big and beautiful lake house, all wood and stone. John was having trouble to carry his two bags when Bill came by and took one from him, holding above his strong shoulder. “It’s okay, I get this one”, he said, making John blush. John could drag them to the house, all the other boys did it. It annoyed him a bit all this concern but he decided not to say anything.

Mike unlocked the door with his left hand while holding his handbag with the other. When he opened it a heavy smell of pine entered their nostrils, probably some cleaning supply the maids use to keep the place tidy. There wouldn’t be any maids that week though, Mike said, they were going to be responsible for the house’s tidiness and organization. The pantry was full of food though, they wouldn’t need to buy anything, except for maybe beers and other superfluous stuff the boys enjoyed.

“Beautiful house, Mike”, John said when he walked in.

“Yes, mate, very nice”, Henry agreed.

“Thanks, guys. The rooms are on the second floor, you gonna have to share them though. But I’m sure it won’t be a problem”, Mike said in a bitter tone.

John’s body quivered, he was out of air for some seconds. It hurt listen to Mike speaking like that, in such an accusatory way. John wanted so much to share rooms with Mike and not Bill, but it was obvious now that the boy would never do it. What have he done? He couldn’t lose Mike’s friendship, it meant too much for him. He realized he was drowned on his thoughts when Bill’s hand touched his shoulder, “Okay there, John?”

“Yeah, sure.” He smiled weakly and went upstairs with all the boys.

Victor and Sebastian would keep the first bedroom; Mike and Henry would stay with the next to the right; and John and Bill got the last one in the corridor, the biggest it seemed. They let their bags rest beside the bed and before John could acknowledge anything Bill’s tall and strong body was all over him on the bed, kissing his neck with fever. John moaned and instinctively thrust his hips against the other boy, wanting some friction. When he realized what he was doing he shook his head and pulled away a bit, “Stop, stop. The door’s open!” He said breathless.

“So? They’ll all know eventually anyway, I’ll tell them. You want me to tell them, right?” Bill came back to kiss his neck, nipping a bit the sensitive skin there.

“I… I don’t know, Bill. It’s going to be weird, isn’t it?” He took the bigger man’s shoulders and tried to keep his mouth away.

“In the beginning maybe, but they’ll get used to it. They’re not homophobic you know, just a bunch of immature boys. It will be fine. All fine”, Bill kissed John on the lips again, trying to put his tongue inside John’s mouth, but John didn’t open for him. Lucky for John a voice called at their door.

“J—Oh! Look at that! Sebastian, Mike, Henry, come and check this out!” Victor shouted in a cheerful tone, “Looks like we have a new couple onboard!”

John rolled away from Bill’s grip and sat on the border of the bed, extremely red and embarrassed. The other boys came running and then they were all smiles and giggles, except for Mike that was looking down the whole time. “I could never see this coming, but hey, no prejudices here! We’re still mates, congrats boys!” Sebastian said with a wide grin, half honest half tease.

“I’m happy for you, guys.” Henry said with a shy smirk.

“Now can we all say I was responsible for this?” Victor exclaimed putting his hands up and pointing at himself, “Thanks to me Bill said he would date you, and then I imagine things got hot from there!”

“Oh gosh”, John said rubbing his eyes.

“That helped a bit, mate, but I had feelings for John since a long time ago. I just didn’t know if he felt the same”, Bill said leaning to put an arm around John’s waist.

_Do I feel the same?_ John thought. Damn it, he just wanted sex. How could he possibly know that handjob would lead to this? Bill and John were never known to like boys, so he thought that fire moment would be hidden and forgotten, that life would move on. Worst, he was not only stuck in a relationship he didn’t want to be, but he was also losing his best mate because of it.

“Let’s leave them alone, boys. We don’t want to disturb the lovebirds.” Mike said in a tone that should be happy but sounded too wryly in John’s ears.

When the boys left and closed the door behind them, John sighed heavily and lied on his back, hands on his eyes. He felt Bill getting closer, dropping one leg above John’s thigh and hiding his face in John’s neck, nuzzling the spot there. John cursed himself inside, he wished he could just tell him to fuck off, that he didn’t want a relationship with him and all, but he just hadn’t the strength to be rude to people, most of the times he suppressed his own feelings so others would be happy, and he hated himself for it.

“See? It wasn’t so bad”, Bill said kissing his throat.

“Yep. Well, I’m really tired, Bill, so if you don’t mind I’d like to sleep.” John said maybe too candid.

“Sure, babe, tomorrow will be a great day.” Bill softly kissed his forehead and finally gave him some space on the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you missing Sherlock?? Do not worry, he'll be debuting in the next chapter!


	3. I'll be a brand new day in a life that you hate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!
> 
> Thank you all for the kudos/comments/bookmarks! They always inspire me!
> 
> Forgive my mistakes, please.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it ;*

 

The next day was full of sunshine; the boys had breakfast, changed and jumped in the lake. Except for John and Mike, they were both not in the mood for much fun. John was seated in the front yard reading a book he wasn’t actually paying attention to. Bill had given him head that morning, and wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as the girls’; it felt a bit dirty too, not the act itself, but the meaning of it. For Bill it was a beautiful and romantic thing, for John it was merely sex, and fear to break up and hurt his friend. John sighed and got a bit scared when he felt Mike’s hand touching his shoulder.

“Hey mate, can I… Uh, can I talk to you? Inside”, Mike asked sheepishly.

“Sure, Mike”, John answered with relief and a bit of apprehension.

They entered the house and sat on the purple patterned sofa, each one far away as possible from the other. “So, what do you want to talk about?” John said putting his book aside on the armchair.

“I-It’s uh… About…”

“Bill and I?” John frowned.

“No, actually… About you and me”, Mike stared at him, his hazel eyes full of… Fear?

John shuddered. Mike looked so fragile, with his light brown hair neatly combed; a jumper that looked like the one John was wearing but yellow; and his dark glasses’ frame almost on the tip of his nose. John wanted to hug him and beg him to not let him go, because he was the only friend he had that tried – really tried – to make John feel protected. “Go ahead”, John gestured him to continue.

“I-I… Well, I don’t want you to feel obliged to do anything, and I just want you to be honest when I’m done, it’s just… I need to spit it out, it’s been inside me for way too long and I feel like I’m about to explode”, his cheeks were a bit pink and he kept clasping his hands anxiously. “We’re best mates, and that was it for a long time. Until we got to Uni and I realize that girls were not being enough, that there was something missing, and…”, Mike cleared his throat, “It was because of you, every time I look at you I feel things that girls can’t cause on me. So I found out that… I’m in love with you”, Mike rubbed his face with sweating hands, “Yeah, that’s it. I’m in love with you, John, and I completely understand if you don’t love me back, I just needed to unburden this, and I just want you to be happy, with or without me.”

John froze on his place, hands on fists beside him. He honestly didn’t know what to say. Bill was right; Mike was indeed in love with him. _Holy shit_. What could he say that would not hurt Mike? The last thing he wanted was to hurt his best friend, but he wasn’t going to lie and tell him that he felt the same. _Come on, John, you can do it_. “Mike. Thank you for telling me this, really mate, it’s an honor to know that, you’re a fantastic person. I love you, Mike, you know that. But my love for you is fraternal, sometimes I even feel like we’re twins or something, even in our way of dressing and food preferences”, John gave him a sad chuckle, “And that means that you’re part of my daily happiness, okay? You’re very important to me.”

John could see some tears filling in Mike’s eyes and he was beginning to get emotional himself so he just did what he wanted, he leaned and hugged Mike’s sturdy body tight; his mate did the same, hiding his face on John’s neck. “Can I-I just do something? One thing, just so…” Mike said nervously.

John understood, “No. Let me do it.”

And then John touched his lips on Mike’s. There were no tongues, no fire, no lust; there was only sentiment. John pulled away just enough so he could pepper kisses all over Mike’s chubby face. They both giggled softly after until John say, “What do you think about we go to the village? Buy some beer and sweets. I could kill for sweets right now.”

“Great idea, mate.”

They got some old bikes that Mike’s family had on their garage, one red and one black. They passed by the boys on the water, “Going to the village, you guys want something?” John shouted.

“Weed!”

“Sorry, mate, not gonna happen!” John laughed.

“Some chips then!”

“And some battery too!” Henry screamed.

“Be careful, babe”, Bill exclaimed, and that made all the other boys throw water on his face and laugh hard of how soppy he was being. John’s cheeks were pink.

They rode cheerfully on the muddy road to the village; John loved all the trees and the animals’ sounds around them. It was great to spend some time on the countryside, away from all the chaotic life style of London. When he was small, his family and him used to go away on holidays to a small cottage they had, John always thought those times were peaceful and cool, but then his parents passed away and his sister started to drink. He shook his head, trying to forget about his problems and to focus on the beautiful small village that was appearing in front of him.

The houses were all made of stone and looked quite old, though very well conserved. When they arrived at the main road, John couldn’t help a big smile forming on his face. The stores all had those little adorable wooden plaques; it reminded him of Diagonal Alley and Hogsmeade. Mike signalized for them to stop at a small boutique. They left their bikes in front of the shop and entered it. John had a silly smirk on his face, looking curiously at all the different things they had there. “My mom asked me to buy her one perfume they only make here”, Mike explained.

John nodded, he had no plans to buy anything in a boutique, but there were so many singular things inside it. He was staring at a pair of glass rollers when he heard a very deep baritone voice coming from near the counter, “No, I don’t need one of these ordinary boxes! I told you before and I hate repetitions! I want a Kobako box! It’s fundamental for my experience!”

John walked a bit closer to the counter only to see who was speaking in such a way about a box. When his eyes found the target, his jaw dropped. The man was as young as John, but taller and with lean elegant features; his hair was a mess of dark curls that John thought it was adorable; his skin was pale white, like porcelain; and his eyes were a mix of all the cold colors that ever existed.

“Sorry, Sherlock, but we don’t have this box. We only have those I showed you”, the clerk said with a tired voice.

“Well, you could have said it before wasting my time!” Sherlock answered with a heavy sigh.

John bit his bottom lip, “You need to stock incense?” He asked without even thinking properly.

The taller boy gave John a surprised look, “Yes.” He simply said.

Sherlock Holmes had never ever seen such a fine piece of human being. The boy who was talking to him was small, very compact in fact; was wearing a terribly taste blue jumper that was actually quite lovely on his body and highlighted his ocean eyes; his hair was very straight and sand colored, some locks falling on his forehead; his face could be misled by common, but Sherlock knew better, it was the most comfortable and honest face he had ever seen. _Is he also for sale?_

“You can use this then, it works basically in the same way”, the boy picked something of a near shelf and reached out to Sherlock. “It’s an incense burner.”

The object was golden, small and beautiful, just like the boy who gave it to Sherlock. “Thank you, it’s… Perfect.”

“You’re welcome”, he said with a smile that could light up the entire place.

Sherlock couldn’t help showing off, “You know about Kobako boxes and incense because of university stress. This is something your mother taught you when you’re a kid; now every time you need to let your mind free of grades and essays you burn incense and relax instead of using drugs. No, you’ve never used drugs, nor you smoke. Last stress you had was way too big though, so incense wouldn’t do, that’s why you decided to come here with some friends, to enjoy the countryside and to remember when you used to come to places like these when you were small.”

“Oh Sherlock, for god’s sake! Poor boy just arrived and you want to scare him away!” The clerk said in an annoyed tone.

“No, it’s fine, that was…” the boy looked at him with shinning eyes, “Bloody brilliant!”

Sherlock went still. He felt every hair of his body stand up in joy. No one had ever told him things like that, they usually told him to fuck off and stop disturbing them with his extremely indecent deductions. “You think so?”

“Yeah, don’t you know?” the boy smirked at him. Sherlock’s guts did a somersault when he looked at those dimples.

“I’m Sherlock Holmes”, he reached his hand out for the boy.

“John Watson, pleasured to meet you.”

_John Watson. The pleasure is all mine._


	4. A crown of gold, a heart that's harder than stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> First of all, as usual, thanks for the support! (:
> 
> Now, for yours and mine happiness I'm happy to say I have a beta, the one and only Nightfall24. She's fantastic, not only as a beta but as an author and friend. Thanks for doing this for me! ;*
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the chapter (;

 

“John? I got the—“ a burly boy came by.

“Oh Mike. This is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes, this is Mike Stamford,” John said with a cheerful smile.

The boy named Mike reached his hand out to Sherlock with a shy grin, but the taller man had other things in mind. _Clearly in love with John, body language says just that._ Sherlock turned his eyes to the blonde boy and fortunately, he could clearly see that John didn’t love Mike in the same way. Sherlock gave a crooked smile and took Mike’s hand, shaking it briefly.

“I got the perfume. I’m going to pay and then we can go. Did you find something you’d like to buy?” Mike asked John, feeling a bit uncomfortable near Sherlock, which made him smile a bit.

“Not really,” John answered.

Mike nodded and turned to Mr. Berry to pay. Sherlock looked at John, “where are you staying?” He didn’t care that the question was a bit nosy, he _needed_ to know.

“At the Stamford’s house,” John said with an honest smile on his beautiful face.

It took all the strength Sherlock had to not throw the small boy over his shoulders and just run away. He had never felt these things before, he didn’t know exactly what to call them; however, the only thing he knew was that he wanted John so bad it hurt. “I think we should meet again to have a drink or something. I know a place where we can eat and drink for free.”

“For free? Now you’re speaking my language,” John laughed.

Sherlock wanted to swallow that laugh, feel it on his lips, on his tongue. “The owner owes me a favor,” he said smugly.

John quirked an eyebrow, “What do you do?”

“I like to call myself a consulting detective to be, though there’s not much in this place to solve. The greatest case I had was the restaurant owner’s really, which wasn’t that excited.”

“You should go to London, there are all kinds of crazy people there, I’m sure you’d be very busy.” John grinned, passing his hand through his gorgeous hair. Sherlock wanted to know how it felt under his own fingertips.

“I went there once, my brother lives there. I must say I helped the NSY with a case, though they’ll never admit it,” Sherlock smirked, “I’m moving there once I’m done with school.”

“You’re still in school?” John asked in a confused tone that made Sherlock feel slightly ashamed.

“I had some trouble in the past that made me lose an entire year at school. I’m much more advanced than anyone in this forsaken place though. I don’t even need to attend school because everything they teach there is either useless or already known to me.” He made sure to say it all so John wouldn’t think he was slow or stupid, although he was sure the sweet boy wouldn’t do such a thing after the deductions he shared with him earlier. It was all true what he said, but he didn’t want to tell John now that the so called troubles were drugs.

John laughed softly, “and what are you going to study?”

“Chemistry, maybe. Don’t know for sure.” Sherlock felt John was really curious about him; no one had ever cared about what he wanted or needed before. John was clearly different.

“I’m sure you’ll be great in whatever you decide to do,” the blonde said, tilting his head to the side. Sherlock wanted so bad to just bite that beautiful golden neck to show everyone that John belonged to him.

“Let’s go, John,” Mike said, standing beside John.

Sherlock felt the urge to asphyxiate the boy right there but he put his hands in his coat pockets and smiled at John. “You didn’t answer me. Do you accept my invitation?”

John hesitated for a moment but when he spoke his voice was firm, “yes, of course.”

“Tonight, at eight pm? The place is called Angelo’s, okay?” He tried to make his voice sound less excited than he actually was.

“Sounds good. Okay, see you then. Bye.” John reached his hand out and Sherlock grabbed it like his life depended on it.

The warm touch was thrilling, causing his penis to grow hard from only that small skin to skin contact. He let John’s hand go, feeling his heart ache as the boy went away, leaving him standing there with the incense burner in his other hand. What just happened? He knew his old life was gone. Everything was changing and he couldn’t care less about the experiment he was going to do. He just wanted to claim John, take him away from his friends, from the world. It was strange having these feelings all of the sudden. He always saw himself as a high functioning sociopath, but could a sociopath feel things so strongly? His mind palace was quickly changing, opening a big new room for his golden boy.

Sherlock wished he could control time.

 

-

John felt nervous, though he had no idea why. Was it weird that he was going on a date with a guy he just met? Well, not a date. No, all the boys wanted to come, so it was more of a meeting. Bill’s arm around his shoulders did nothing to reassure him. There weren’t enough bikes and they were all too dressed up to walk on the muddy road, so they decided to drive to the village instead.

“How’s this bloke anyway?” Victor asked from his usual seat in the car.

“He’s weird,” Mike said.

“No he’s not,” John corrected him, “he’s just different. I think it was nice of him to invite us to dinner and maybe he can tell us about some other places we can visit here.”

“He didn’t invite us, he invited _you_.” Mike said in a grumpy voice.

“He’s crazy if he thinks I’m going to leave my baby alone on a date with a stranger,” Bill said, leaning to give a soft kiss on John’s cheek.

John was quiet while the boys made teasing sounds. He really didn’t want all of them to come, maybe only Mike because Bill was kind of right, Sherlock was still a stranger. But deep down, he’d like it to be just Sherlock and him. There was something mysterious about the curly headed boy that made John think about him the entire day; it was getting quite annoying actually. Those icy eyes kept appearing in his mind, that deep voice speaking in his ear, that pink cupid bow so enticing. John came back to the present world when he realized the car had stopped.

They got out of the car and John saw the plaque that said ‘Angelo’s.’ When they entered the restaurant, John resisted the urge to push Bill’s hand off his back. The place was cozy, wooden tables and chairs covered by a nice chess red and green cloth. Looking around, John found Sherlock, who was seated at the farthest table, near the wall. When the boy’s eyes met his, John’s body shivered a bit. He smiled but Sherlock wasn’t smiling back at him. Instead, he was looking at all the boys behind John, mainly Bill who kept holding him like he was some kind of damsel in distress.

He walked to the table and Sherlock stood up to greet him. “Good evening, John. Brought some friends?” His tone was cheerful but John could feel the anger behind it. He suddenly realized he felt the same.

“Yes, er… they wanted to come,” John sighed and stepped aside so the boys could greet Sherlock. “This is Bill Murray, Victor Trevor, Sebastian Wilkes, Henry Knight, and well, you know Mike. Guys, this is Sherlock Holmes.”

The boys brought another table to join so they could sit together. John was on Sherlock’s side, Bill was near John – too near, to be honest – Victor was on Sherlock’s right, Sebastian next to him, and Mike and Henry on the other side of the second table. Soon enough, a big man dressed as a chef appeared with a large smile on his face. “Oh Sherlock, I’m so happy to see you with friends! What can I get for you gentleman? It’s on the house!”

Victor and Sebastian squeaked and clapped their hands while John only rolled his eyes but couldn’t help to laugh. His friends started to order and John took the opportunity to look at Sherlock, who was staring back at him. He smiled to the pale boy and this time he smiled back, but his smile was not completely honest. To be more exact, it looked more like an evil grin, but John shook the thought out of his head. There was no such thing as an evil grin, right?

“John, baby, what do you want?” Bill’s voice interrupted his reverie.

“Oh, right. I want… hum, whatever Sherlock is having.”

Sherlock’s grin was gone when he looked back at him. He was staring at Bill, eyes sharp and ice cold. If one paid close attention like John was doing, they would see that Sherlock was quietly growling. His face was slightly red and his brows frowned, he looked quite angry. No, more than angry.

He looked like a wolf ready to attack his prey.


	5. Standing trial for your sins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> Thank you all for the kudos/comments/bookmarks, you people just inspire me everytime!
> 
> A huge thanks to Nightfall24 for betaing this chapter for me, you're great ;*
> 
> And... Sorry for the delay! Hope you all enjoy this (:

 

_This Bill is also clearly in love with John AND he thinks they are dating._ The word ‘baby’ still echoed inside his head but it didn’t make any sense because John certainly did not belong to Bill. John was Sherlock’s, he just didn’t know that yet; but he would, they all would. Sherlock wished he could just jump and tear Bill apart, limb from limb. In fact, he wished he could do this to all of the ordinary intrusive boys. This dinner was supposed to be only with John and Sherlock, no one else, and it was obvious that his blonde boy knew it too. Sadly, he could not do any of this now; it would be sloppy and abrupt, messy even. Plus, it would hurt John deeply, after all the boys were his friends. No, Sherlock would have to do it some other way. In a way that no one, especially John, would notice.

“I don’t eat much, only what’s necessary. But tonight I’m feeling eerily hungry,” Sherlock moved his eyes to John and smiled, then looked at Angelo. “We’ll have the spaghetti alla puttanesca, please.”

“Right away!” Angelo smiled and walked back to the kitchen.

Sherlock returned his focus to the table and he noticed some of the boys were already engaged in small talk, so he decided to take the time to analyze each one so he would know what to do in the near future. His mind worked fast enough so no one would perceive his meddling.

He started with Victor Trevor who was seated on his right: light brown hair, blue eyes, some freckles on his cheeks and nose, thin lips and slightly taller than average. Sherlock could see he was bisexual, though he wouldn’t admit if you asked, also that he felt attracted to the “detective” because his body was leaned in towards Sherlock’s direction and once in a while his eyes hovered over him, even when he tried to disguise it.  _That will be useful._ It was also clear by the way Victor spoke that he liked action movies and violent video games.  _Even better_ . Sherlock’s mind knew exactly what to do with him.

Sebastian Wilkes was engaged in Victor’s conversation about something Sherlock considered stupid. The boy had dark brown hair and eyes, by the way he dressed, untidy and relaxed,) Sherlock could see the boy missed his teen years and that’s why he acted so childish. He wasn’t very smart, that much was also obvious.  _Easy_ . 

Henry Knight was shy, he mostly listened his friends instead of speaking. He had floppy ears, blonde hair and clear blue eyes, though his features didn’t stand out at all. Sherlock found it easy to notice he liked to read thriller books and listen to pop rock songs. His clothes shown he wasn’t vane but had a very wealthy family. Plus, he didn’t love John like Bill and Mike, but if given him the opportunity to have John, he’d definitely take it.  _Not good at all._

Mike Stamford he knew from the shop; completely in love with John but resigned with only getting his friendship. He was faithful though and really cared about John without expecting much in return.  _Good guy Mike, will do just fine_ . Then, Sherlock’s eyes turned to Bill, and his fists clenched under the table.

Bill fucking Murray. Athlete, womanizer pretender, didn’t do well on Uni apart from sports. Liked to hunt with family in his spare time and usually got what he wanted.  _Not this time_ . Since his brain isn’t his forte, Bill still failed to see that his love for John was unrequited and that Sherlock’s boyfriend to be was very uncomfortable with his display of affection. He could beat Sherlock in a physical fight since he was taller and stronger, but he was sure to lose in the mind games Sherlock loved so much.  _He wouldn’t even know what hit him. But I’ll be sure he does._

“Sherlock?” he heard a voice calling him. Victor. He turned to look at the boy with a fake smile, “I asked you if you have ever watched Pulp Fiction.”

_Oh._ This would be quicker than Sherlock thought; the tide was in his favor. “Of course, it’s very interesting,” he gave a strategic pause, “but my favorite Tarantino movie is Reservoir Dogs.” 

“Oh really? Why?” Victor rested his chin on his right hand, staring right at Sherlock.

“At first you may think it’s only a thriller about violence, but I see deeper. I think it’s about the human psyche, and how it works in groups. How each individual finds a way of reacting in moments of great despair,” Sherlock stopped for a moment to look around the table, they all seemed interested. He then turned again to his momentary target, “but most of all, it’s about betrayal. And the way it twists and shatters the truth we know.” Victor was a bit pink in his cheeks, surely impressed by Sherlock’s analysis. The dark haired student grinned at him, satisfied. _There you go, the idea was implanted. First step checked._

“My favorite Tarantino’s movie is Death Proof. So many hot chicks!” Sebastian said, throwing his head back laughing loud.

Sherlock stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He looked at John he saw the boy grimacing, a bit amused and impatient. “That’s a very good reason,” John said wryly, sighing. Then his beautiful ocean eyes looked at Sherlock, “my favorite is Inglorious Bastards, mainly because of the dialogues and Christoph Waltz. He’s brilliant.”

“I agree with you, babe. This movie is great,” Bill said. Sherlock held his fists tight under the table, trying to keep the angry blood climbing to his face. He relaxed a bit though, when he realized the athlete hadn’t seen the movie and was just showing off to John. 

Sherlock smirked, “what’s your favorite scene?” He asked amicably.

Bill hesitated, and as if seeing some kind of threat, he put his arm around John’s shoulders. Sherlock knew it probably was more an unconscious act rather than a challenge to Sherlock, but that didn’t stop him from feeling furious. Angelo interrupted as he led some waiters to put the plates in front of each boy. Sherlock thought this opportunity was perfect; he looked at Bill who looked back at him almost pleadingly. While John was distracted by the waiter pouring coke to his glass, Sherlock moved his lips in an inaudible whisper, “say the scene where Donwitz kills Colonel Landa”. Bill nodded and smiled, feeling confident. Sherlock almost laughed maliciously. The tide was indeed in his favor.

“Thanks, Angelo,” Sherlock said and the boys echoed the sentence.

There was a brief silence while they all tasted their food. The groans of pleasure that were heard made it hard for Sherlock to focus on his food. He was divided between watching John’s face while he ate his spaghetti with closed eyes and lips slightly tainted by sauced, which Sherlock wanted to lick that away slowly, and between the anticipation to hear Bill’s answer to John.

Finally, his pretty small blonde boy spoke. “You didn’t answer, Bill, what’s your favorite scene?” Sherlock felt his heart beating faster. It was like John was helping him without even knowing it, pure instinct.  _You can feel we belong together, can’t you John?_

“Oh, yes. It’s the one where Donwitz kills Colonel Landa. I think it’s really awesome how he does it.” Bill’s tone was so full of himself, sure that he was nailing the entire thing and that John would be proud. Sherlock had to bite his tongue so he wouldn’t laugh.

John’s brow furrowed in an adorable way, “That’s not even in the movie, Bill. Did you even watch it?” His tone was a bit annoyed now.

The other boys all looked at Bill and started to laugh, exclaiming things like ‘he got you’ or ‘liar liar’ or ‘buuurn,’ which Sherlock was not sure of what that meant but he found everything very amusing and he even let himself laugh with them for a while. Bill looked at him and scowled but Sherlock knew he wouldn’t say anything because it would only make things worse for him. Sherlock grinned at him, lifting his glass and sipping it happily. When he turned his head to John, he saw the boy focused on his food, ignoring whatever Bill was whispering to him.

Since things were doing so well, he decided to take another step with his plan, a complement for the first part. “Henry, excuse me for asking, but is that a dog’s bite in your arm?” Sherlock pointed to the purple mark on the student’s left arm.

“Oh, yes, one of my father’s dogs. Hate those things,” he said nervously, like he was remembering when it happened.

“You hate dogs? How can anyone hate dogs, mate?” Victor asked.

_Here we go._

“They’re aggressive and bloody crazy! I can’t put one foot in my house without them coming to bite me,” Henry said sipping his orange juice.

“You probably did something to piss them off. Dogs are fantastic creatures, mate, don’t hate on them,” Victor said seriously.

“You say this because you don’t know my father’s hounds! I’d shoot them if I had the opportunity,” Henry grimaced.

“What?! Don’t say that to me. I have a beautiful and calm dog, Ducky, so it really bothers me when you say that, Henry. If I ever see you trying to hurt a dog, be sure I’ll stop you, by any means necessary.” Victor’s tone was severe and his hand was clenched tightly on his fork. 

Of course Sherlock knew Victor had a dog, which was why he started the conversation after all. His trousers were torn at the hem, just like his sneakers had scratches and bite marks all over them. It was pretty obvious, really. Sherlock also knew Henry didn’t have a dog because his clothes were intact and he was always trying to hide the mark with disgust.

“Ducky, what kind of name is that?” Sebastian laughed, already a bit drunk off the beers he had been drinking. 

There was an awkward silence after that. All the boys just kept looking at their plates, some were eating, and some were only fidgeting with what was left of their food. Victor and Henry were clearly annoyed, Bill was angry and now and then he glared at Sherlock, Mike was the calmest of them all and looked quite bored. John’s face was impassive but Sherlock could see his mind was flying around.  _What is he thinking about?_ Sherlock wondered if it was about him, or maybe John was realizing Bill wasn’t the right one for him. One day he would know, he would know everything about John, every single thought, every single fear; it would all be Sherlock’s. By the way things were going, it would be soon.


	6. You are so fragile and thin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> Thank you sooooo much for the kudos/comments/bookmarks! You just make my day better!
> 
> Also, I cannot thank Nightfall24 enough for being such a patient and kind beta, specially when I get too overexcited and the chapter is messy. lol
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it! (;

 

They had all said awkward goodbyes, making the atmosphere pretty tense. When John was getting into the car though, he felt long hands on his shoulder and that beautiful deep voice speaking near his ear. “I’m sorry about everything…”

“Oh no, god no!” John exclaimed turning around, and then whispering back to Sherlock, “you were the best thing of the night. I am the one sorry for the boys, they’re all childish.”

Sherlock smiled, “don’t ever feel sorry about anything. It’s okay, I understand,” he slipped his hand from John’s shoulder to his upper arm, “can we do this again? But just the two of us next time, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, I don’t mind at all!” He laughed, trying to speak low, “when? Where?”

“I know a place you’d love, say… Tomorrow at five pm? Meet me in front of that boutique we met at. Does that sound okay?”

“Perfect,” John grinned and before he could speak anything else, the horn sounded. “Coming!” 

“Good-bye, John. See you tomorrow,” Sherlock said squeezing his arm a bit before walking away.

\--

“I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all,” Bill said when John lay down on the big bed.

Mike and Henry were sleeping in their bedroom while Victor and Sebastian were probably talking or smoking somewhere in the house. All John wanted to do was sleep to give his frazzled mind a rest. He kept thinking of Sherlock: Sherlock’s cold but warm eyes, Sherlock’s soft dark curls, Sherlock’s plush lips, Sherlock’s lean frame, Sherlock’s baritone voice. He wondered how his body would feel against the other boy’s. He had never felt so attracted to another man like he was with Sherlock. Not even Bill was that appealing to him. Actually, Bill was annoying the bloody hell out of him. That silly scene at the restaurant had John already irritated at him, and then his constant kissing and touching on their way back had convinced John it was time to break up with him. That was also a frequent question on his mind, how would he do it?

“Why not?” John asked on automatic pilot as he got under the covers.

“I find him arrogant,” Bill said joining John on the bed, “and unpleasant.”

The blonde boy sighed, “he was really nice to everyone. He seems like a shy person and yet he tried to talk with all of the boys, including you.”

“I don’t think he was being honest.”

“He? What about you? You do realize you did a very stupid move back there, right?” John turned his head to look at Bill, who had his face really close to John’s.

“I’m sorry for that, babe. That was…” It looked like he was going to say something but he just leaned closer to kiss John’s lips. “Let me make it up to you.”

John couldn’t help but kiss him back. Bill was a good kisser and their tongues felt nice wrestling in the warmth of their mouths. Also, John was half hard since Sherlock’s voice whispered in his ear, hot and delicious. He could use some relief and Bill just happened to have the correct tools to relieve him.  _But this is bad, isn’t it? After all, I want to break up with him. Oh John, let’s think about that later. This is sex, and you very much love sex._ John moaned when Bill kissed his neck, nipping a bit on his throat. John’s whole body shivered when he felt the other boy’s tongue traveling down his chilling body.

“You’re so hot, babe. I could do you all day and night,” Bill’s voice was low on John’s now bare stomach. 

His mouth kept going down until he reached John’s pajama bottoms. He pulled it down and John shrugged it off with his feet. Bill licked John’s now full hard cock through the thin cloth of his pants. “Oh fuck,” John groaned.

Bill took the clothing off quickly as John kicked it out of bed. “So hard for me,” Bill said and John would never say, but he knew that wasn’t completely true.

John’s head fell to the pillow and his eyes shut tight when Bill’s mouth covered all of his length. The taller man’s tongue played with the head while his fingers stroked at the base. After a while, John’s body was thrusting up and his hand was on Bill’s short hair. “Fuck, Bill!” John exclaimed maybe a bit too loud, but he knew the boys wouldn’t interrupt them now, they wouldn’t dare. 

“You taste so good, babe,” Bill said when he left John’s cock with a pop. 

Soon enough he began lapping at John’s balls. He didn’t stop there though, he was going down, and with a quick move he pushed John’s hips up. Instinctively, John held his knees with his hands to give Bill space, but he wasn’t thinking right, his mind too clouded with lust. He just wanted to come so badly. Bill’s hands reached John’s arse and his clever fingers separated the two halves to reach the…

“Bill, Bill!” John panted, letting his legs drop as he backed away a bit, fully conscious of what was happening then, “what do you think you’re doing?”

“I thought we could try something new…” Bill said innocently

“Could you at least ask for my permission first? You can’t just… Ugh, Bill. That’s not…” John rubbed his hands over his face and sighed heavily. “Never mind, I’m going to sleep now. Good night.”

“John, I—“

“Good night, Bill.”

After a while Bill lay down but had the good sense to not touch John. The young blonde waited until he could hear Bill’s snore and then started to wank himself quickly. He could only think about Sherlock’s mouth doing what Bill was doing to him before he stopped. He came all over the sheets, but he didn’t care, he rather liked how it felt.

\--

“Where are you going?” He heard Bill’s voice coming out of the bedroom. 

John had just finished getting dressed. He picked a grey shirt, dark green jumper, and his usual old blue jeans. He put his cellphone in his pocket before turning to look at Bill, who was wearing only shorts; his brown hair was wet from the lake water where all the boys were swimming. “I don’t owe you any explanation.”

Bill frowned, “well, I think you do.”

John narrowed his eyes walking towards the other man, “I don’t care what you think,” he said trying to pass by Bill only to be grabbed on the arm by the other boy’s strong hand. “Let me go,” John hissed.

“Are you going to meet Sherlock?” Bill pulled John closer, their faces almost touching. “Are you? Do you think that’s wise?”

“I know what it’s wise, Bill, you letting my fucking arm go, right fucking now!” John growled.

“You’re MY boyfriend, John. You’re not some single bloke that can go on dates with other men. Understand that?” Bill put his free hand on John’s cheek.

“Who said it’s a fucking date? For God’s sake, Bill! What’s wrong with you?!” John tried to walk away with a brusque move but Bill only held him tighter. 

“Sherlock needs to know you’re mine, John.” 

“Holy fuck! I never was, am not, and never will be yours!” John kicked Bill in his shin and ran away as fast as he could, face red with anger.

When he was crossing the yard, he heard someone calling his name form the lake, but he really didn’t care at the moment and kept walking to the car with heavy steps. He had to take deep breaths so he wouldn’t speed on the muddy road. John’s mind was a war, and his nice side was losing. He would definitely break up with Bill after everything he did and said.  _How could he say that? ‘Sherlock needs to know you’re mine, John’. That’s absurd! When did I give him the impression of being his? We’ve been together for three days! I don’t even love him!_ And that was it. He knew that he needed to end things with Bill, not only for his own sake, but also for Bill’s.

He parked the car some blocks away from the boutique. The air was cool and smelled of wood and something sweet, which made John calmer. However, what made his entire body relax and his mouth to twitch into a happy smile was the tall lean figure of one Sherlock Holmes; mysterious with his dark coat and those beautiful sharp cheekbones.  _Damn, just looking at him makes me feel better_ . Sherlock was grinning cheerfully at the blonde boy, making John blush.

“Hello,” John said sheepishly when he was finally next to the man.

“Hello, John,” Sherlock said and his tone was the happiest he’d ever heard.

“How are you?”

“Will it be cliché if I say I’m better now?” Sherlock gave him a crooked smile.

John’s cheeks couldn’t be pinker, “It will, but then we’ll both be clichés.”

They giggled for some seconds before Sherlock spoke. “We can go with my car, it’s not too far, but it isn’t close either.”

John felt immense relief because all he wanted right now was to go away with Sherlock. “Let’s go.”

While they were heading to Sherlock’s secret place, John sat still with his hands on his thighs and his teeth biting his bottom lip. John hated when Bill kept holding his shoulders or touching his legs during their rides, but he found himself desperate for Sherlock’s hands on his body. He turned his face to look at the beautiful man by his side and suddenly, his heart filled with something like a heated duvet, warming his entire chest. Sherlock looked back at him and John noticed his pupils were entirely dilated. Somehow, John knew his were just as blown.

“You went through some kind of distress earlier. Bill?” Sherlock said, taking him by surprise.

John hesitated for a second, “yes…” John didn’t speak for some moments and Sherlock kept quiet as if he knew John would say something eventually; he was right. “He just pisses me off sometimes. Okay, most of the times,” John gave a nervous laugh.

“So why are you still with him?” Sherlock asked simply.

John passed his hands through his hair, not sure how to answer. Sherlock must have realized this because soon he spoke again. “You like him as a friend, and you surely enjoy the sex, but you can’t stand being in a relationship with him because you know you will never be able to love him like he loves you. Your kind heart is too good to end things, you know it will break his heart, so you’ll just keep going on with it until you destroy yourself with distaste.”

When Sherlock finished his speech John’s eyes were filled with tears. In a second, Sherlock pulled the car over to the side of the street, taking his and John’s seat belt off so he could grab the smaller boy’s shoulder. He brought the broken young blonde to half sit on his lap, head on his chest and arms on Sherlock’s sides. The detective-to-be slid his hands down so he could hold John’s waist tight and press them even closer. “I won’t let that happen. I won’t let you get hurt.” One of Sherlock’s hands went to John’s hair and started to brush it gently. “Since the first time I saw you in that boutique I knew how special you were, because you caught my attention in a way no one else ever could.” Sherlock cupped John’s cheek and lifted the boy’s flushed face so they could look into each other’s eyes. “I came to the obvious conclusion that you are the most beautiful creature in this world, I want very much to be part of you.”

John’s smile could end wars, bring world peace, feed the starving, and heal the moribund. In a moment, ocean eyes met with melted metal ones and as thin pink lips and pouty lips conned for the first time. As they kissed, all that was heard was the most beautiful symphony ever created.

 


	7. So call it quits or get a grip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> Thank you all for the kudos/comments/bookmarks, your support is invaluable!
> 
> Thanks Nightfall24 for betaing amazingly as usual!
> 
> Brace yourselves, we have a dark way ahead! Hope you enjoy it ;*

 

Mike had heard John and Bill’s row and was getting ready to do something about it when John ran off, leaving a wounded Bill behind. To be completely honest, Mike disliked Bill every day the athlete spent with John. He could see his best friend struggling with all the possessiveness and the unrequited desires forced upon him. However, John was just way too nice to break up with Bill, although Mike was quite sure this ugly fight would push bring the end. He opened his bedroom door and found Bill there on the door frame with a grimace of pain and shame on his face.

“Want some help there?” Mike offered, just to be polite, he didn’t give much of a damn though.

Bill didn’t answer at first, so Mike turned around and started walking downstairs.

“I know you don’t like me much, Mike,” he heard Bill’s weak voice behind him, “but would you rather see him with me or with that weird Sherlock?”

Mike didn’t bother to turn, he just kept walking, “I’d rather see him with whoever makes him happy, and apparently that isn’t you.”

When Mike got to the yard, he was surprised to find Sebastian trying to separate Henry and Victor from killing each other in the lake. Victor used his height to his advantage and was holding Henry’s hair with both hands whilst pushing his head down under water. The younger boy had his hands blindly trying to scratch Victor’s face and by the waves around them, he could see Henry was kicking Victor with all the strength he had. Mike ran to the scene and helped Sebastian pull them apart. With Mike holding Henry and Seb holding Victor, they pulled the two angry boys away from the lake.

“What the fuck are you two doing?” Mike shouted while Henry did what he could to get out of Mike’s grip.

“I went to grab a beer and these two started to fight…” Seb started to say but Victor interrupted him with an elbow to the stomach.

“Are you on his side now, Seb? I always knew you were two faced!” Victor exclaimed succeeding in pushing Sebastian away.

“Who can blame him? You’re a piece of shit, Victor!” Henry said. It only took a moment when Mike got distracted for the two boys to jump at one another again.

Mike sighed and ran to try and separate them again. He looked at Sebastian and the young man was looking down, his expression passing from sad, to frustrated, to angry, and then he finally snapped. “You’re an ungrateful son of a bitch, Victor!” After that Mike was watching three friends trying to tear each other into pieces and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.. He turned around and ran as fast as he could to call Bill for help.

He climbed the stairs panting and with sweaty hands, his cheeks were probably pink and his hair completely mussed. Mike just couldn’t believe what was happening, those kids were friends, they were not supposed to fight like that. Of course they had had rows before; after all, they were boys, but not something so bad as what was happening outside.

Mike’s mind turned to those mythological books he liked so much to read. Gods and men from the past and how sometimes the God of discord planted a seed into an environment and then everything went downhill from there. The Gods always loved watching men killing each other. He shook the ridiculous thought and opened Bill’s door with a thud. He was not there.

“Bill?” Mike called. No answer. 

He looked into the bathroom, nothing. He checked every single room in the damn house as fast as he could but no sign of Bill. Mike rubbed his face with his hands and took a deep breath. The sound of struggles could be heard from outside and Mike knew the boys would murder each other if he didn’t intervene, so he ran again to see how the situation had escalated. _Pretty bad_. Victor was on the floor, straddled by a very mad Sebastian who kept punching him in the face like there was no tomorrow. Mike’s eyes flew to a bloody figure lying down on the ground, motionless. _Oh god no._ He ignored the two boys and keened beside Henry’s head.

“Henry? Henry?” Mike turned his body so he was lying on his back, but no sign of response. “Henry! Can you hear me? Henry, please. Oh god no, no.”

Henry’s face was a red mass; Mike couldn’t even see if his eyes were opened or closed. _What’s wrong with these boys? What have they done?_ Mike took Henry’s wrist and tried to feel his pulse, but he couldn’t. He didn’t know if it was because he was nervous or because there was indeed no pulse. So he leaned his head down to the boy’s chest and tried to hear. _Please please._ Nothing. He tried to punch Henry’s chest, tried to do mouth to mouth he tried everything he had learned, but nothing changed. Henry’s body was immobile. Mike then realized.

“Henry is dead,” he whispered to himself. “Henry is dead.”

Tears started to run through his face and his entire body was shaking. He could not believe this was happening. “Henry is DEAD! DEAD! YOU KILLED HIM! YOU-YOU IDIOTS, YOU MURDERES, YOU KILLED HIM!” He started to scream and sob at the same time, but he didn’t care, he was a mess but at least he was alive. Henry was his friend, he was a nice boy with a future ahead of him; he wanted to be an architect and now it was gone thanks to a stupid fight.

Mike almost didn’t notice the boys stopped fighting when they heard his screams. They limped over towards Mike, sitting down next to Henry’s body. Mike looked at them, face flushed and angry, “I hope you’re bloody happy, you animals!” He shouted. “You killed him, you _killed_ him! For something stupid I’m sure! Do you even remember why you were fighting?! You’re just ignorant kids! And you killed a friend! Oh my god, what-you…”

The boys said nothing, they just stayed in silence looking down with blank faces. Mike spoke first, “we need to call the police.”

Victor and Sebastian glared at him at the same time, mouths gaped. When Victor spoke his voice was broken and low, “we can’t! Th-they will find out, we-we could go to jail…”

“Well, it’s fair enough, you arsehole! You killed Henry!” Mike exclaimed.

“I didn’t do it alone! I-I… Sebastian kicked the hell out of him too!”

“Fucking liar, I only hit you!” Sebastian growled.

“You’re the liar, you punched him too!”

“Oh no you—“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU TWO!” Mike shouted as he stood, “I don’t fucking care who gave the final blow, you two are fucked. I’m going to call the police!”

“NO!” The two boys called together.

“If you do that, then you’ll be blamed as usual, and your family will be called, and and…” Sebastian tried to speak between heavy breaths.

“And everyone will talk about that at Uni, and you’d be accused of being an accomplice! You’d lose everything too!” Victor said and Seb nodded in agreement.

“That’s ridiculous! I’ll be indicted for obstruction of justice if I don’t call the police now! What would you do anyways, if I didn’t call? They would find out somehow, you stupid animals!” Mike cried, he tried to sound confident but he was afraid of calling. It would be messy.

“We could say he drowned! He went to swim and disappeared!” Victor said, as if it was the best idea ever.

“Yeah yeah, we could stuff rocks into his pockets. Take the boat and drop him far away from the house, they would never find him!” Sebastian spoke, the same cheerful tone.

Mike snorted, “Henry was your friend! How can you do this?” He took a deep breath, shook his shoulders, “If you tell the police it was an accident they’ll reduce your…”

“No way! We need to drop the body in the water, Mike. It’s perfect! Then we can move on…”

“Move on? How could you move on after something like this? Are you guys crazy? Oh never mind, you obviously are! Since you just k—“

“What would John think, Mike?” Victor said with a cruel tone.

Mike’s eyes widened, “John would want me to do the right thing!”

“Oh but imagine his face when he knows you just watched us kill Henry and you did nothing to stop it,” Sebastian said.

Mike felt something tighten in his chest when he pictured those kind pair of dark blue eyes staring at him. “He would understand I couldn’t do anything, that I tried, that’s it’s your bloody fault!”

“I don’t, Mike, maybe some people would claim to have seen it happen differently…” Victor said and Sebastian agreed. “It would be two against one; with the police, with John, with your parents.”

“That’s absurd, look at you two!” Mike pointed, stepping back.

“The wounds could be arranged…” Sebastian hissed low.

“So what are you going to do, Mike?” Victor asked walking towards him.

 

\--

 

Sherlock was right, John loved the place. It was like a small heart-shaped lake with lots of flowers and beautiful trees around. Sherlock said he found it when he ran away from his home once, and after that day he’d always go there to think. He also said no one knew about it because it was right in the middle of the grove that people tended to avoid; afraid of wild animals, which Sherlock knew wasn’t true. As soon as they got there, John took his clothes off and jumped into the water with Sherlock right behind.

After some minutes playing around, the two boys kissed again and again and again. They were snogging hard in the water, bodies warm and flushed even as they were half submerged. Sherlock had one arm around John’s waist and one hand cupping his cheek. John’s arms were around Sherlock’s shoulders, scratching and squeezing. They pulled away for some seconds so they could breathe, when their eyes met they giggled. John hadn’t felt this happy in a long time.

“You’re so beautiful,” Sherlock said caressing John’s cheek with his thumb, “I could look at you all day.”

“I have a better idea,” John said chuckling. He pressed his lips to Sherlock again and soon their tongues were entwined.

Still kissing, John took Sherlock’s hand that was on his waist and moved it down to touch his erection. He felt the taller man groaning inside his mouth and he thought it was impossible for him to get any harder. He curled Sherlock’s hand around his length and started to stroke lightly, their fingers working together. John moaned and Sherlock moved their hands faster. John’s head dropped back and Sherlock took the invitation to kiss and nip on his tanned neck. “Faster, faster, please Sherlock,” John asked, voice low with arousal.

_“John.”_ Sherlock whispered in his ear when he joined both their cocks and started to stroke them together fast and precise. John hid his face on Sherlock’s clavicle and could do nothing but moan the other boy’s name. His mind was a blur and the only thing visible was Sherlock and him, their bodies pressed tight and all the sensations that came with it.

They both climaxed together, screaming each other’s name as they did. They hugged for a moment, panting and shuddering. After a while they got out of the water and Sherlock wrapped both of them in his greatcoat, which was warm and smelled of Sherlock. John nuzzled into the collar and Sherlock kissed the top of his head. “Will you be mine, John? Tell me you’ll be mine.”

John looked up and gave him a big honest smile, “I am yours already, silly.”

Their way back to the village was calm and relaxing. John had his head on Sherlock’s shoulder the whole time and Sherlock’s hand on John’s was tight, tracing invisible patterns. They didn’t need to talk or look at each other to know how entranced they were with one another, how complete they felt. It was so perfect that John forgot all about his situation until they pulled up in front of the boutique. Sherlock opened the door for John, a gesture that could be old fashioned but John found himself loving it. They entwined their hands and Sherlock touched John’s chin with his other so he could kiss him gently on the lips. “You should probably eat something, we could go to—“

Sherlock was interrupted by someone jumping on him. It didn’t take John long to see who that was.

“Bill!”


	8. Holding onto yourself the best you can

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody!
> 
> Thank you sooooo much for the kudos/comments/bookmarks! You just make me wanna write more and more!
> 
> Thanks Nightfall24 once more for being my patient and awesome beta!
> 
> I'd like to clear something too: maybe you think things are happening way too fast and all, but I prefer to cut to the chase than to extend and keep rambling into something just to pass the 'sense of reality', this is a fic and not a book, so I think I can speed this up lol
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! (;

 

It seemed to John, who was safely watching from a couple feet away, that Sherlock knew exactly how Bill would attack him, each blow, each punch, and each kick. The athlete already had already several bruises over his body, but the only thing Sherlock had was mussed dark curls. It took some time before for the towns people came and pulled them apart. Bill spat some blood on the ground while Sherlock readjusted his coat. John got closer to Sherlock and touched his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Before Sherlock could answer though, Bill snapped, “Is HE okay? What about ME, John? I’m your boyfriend, did you forgot about that?! It’s okay, babe, I know he messed with your mind, I forgive you. But I won’t forgive him!” Bill tried to jump on Sherlock again, but the man who was holding him pulled him back roughly.

Sherlock was apparently calm. He rubbed his hair and looked at John, who didn’t know what to say in that moment, “I’m okay. I’m sorry you had to see this,” then he turned his eyes to a furious looking Bill. “Haven’t you figured out what’s going on yet? I knew you were slow, but I didn’t realize how much!”

Bill tried uselessly to attack Sherlock again, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you piece of shit! You think you can come and ruin some—“

“Bill, enough!” John exclaimed coming to stand between the two boys, “Sherlock didn’t ruin anything. He only helped me make a decision that was already on my mind.” John took a deep breath and went on, “we won’t work, Bill, so it’s better if I just end things. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but that’s it. It’s over. Just- No, don’t start. I’ve made up my mind.”

“No! HE made it up for you. Can’t you see, John?!” Bill screamed.

John covered his face with both hands. He was so ashamed this was happening in the middle of the street with all the curious eyes on them. He only realized he was shivering when Sherlock embraced him from behind and kissed him on the cheek. He visibly relaxed with the touch and Sherlock smiled. “You need to eat something, okay? Come with me,” the brunette said.

John nodded and turned to Bill, who had tears falling down on his face. John’s heart ached a little with the sight, he really didn’t want to hurt Bill, but breaking up would be the best for both of them. Bill would get over him eventually, and he would find someone who could love him back. Just like John would have with Sherlock. “Go back to the house, Bill. We’re done here.”

“John, you can’t do this! No, John!” Bill shouted.

With Sherlock still holding him, they both walked away from the scene.

\--

They ate mostly in silence and when Sherlock invited John to go to his house to spend the night, the boy said yes without hesitation. Everything was going so well he couldn’t even believe it. He managed to steal John from Bill in one quick move, now he had the boy all to himself. That wasn’t enough yet; he still had big plans ahead. He needed to make sure John would stay with him in the village until he finished school, and then they would move to London to live together in a rented flat. Everything would be perfect, though he knew it wasn’t going to be easy to convince John to stay. Sherlock had everything locked in one room of his Mind Palace, all the paintings and sculptures of what he had to do mapped out perfectly.

“It’s going to be weird,” John said. He had his head resting on Sherlock’s chest while they were lying on the living room sofa, “going back to the lake house.”

“You can stay here for as long as you want, you know that.” Sherlock brushed the boy’s blonde soft hair with his fingers, the sensation marvelous.

“But that wouldn’t be fair to Mike and the boys. No, I should go back. I—“ John was interrupted by a buzz coming from his trousers’ pocket.

He shifted so he could sit, and grabbed the mobile. Sherlock stayed prone but reached one a hand to caress John’s stomach. The blonde put the phone on his ear, “Hi Mike.” Sherlock watched his boy’s face when his brow furrowed adorably, which meant he was paying especial attention to what he was being told. It seemed like Mike was narrating an entire adventure to him, and the story was getting worse as it went on because John’s expression turned scared, until he finally spoke, “Don’t worry, Mike! I’ll be there in a moment, okay? Just keep calm, I’ll be right there. Bye.”

“What happened?” Sherlock asked while sitting and holding John’s arm.

“Err—Oh well, I—“ John cleared his throat nervously.

“You know you can tell me anything, John.”

John sighed heavily, “Mike told me that Victor, Sebastian and Henry were fighting until something happened, something serious. He didn’t want to tell me what it was, but he said things were pretty dirty and he didn’t know what to do, so he asked me to come back. Two heads are better than one, right? Unless you’re Sherlock Holmes, of course.” John gave him a weak smile and kissed him quickly before standing up.

“I’m going with you. That is, if you don’t mind,” Sherlock asked. He knew it might be awkward if Bill was there, but that’s precisely why he wanted to be with John.

“Of course not, but I’ll have to go with the rented car. The boys may want to use it.”

Sherlock nodded. Although he was a bit annoyed that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy John’s company during the drive, he knew better than to act possessively so soon in their relationship. He didn’t want John to make comparisons between him and Bill, after all. For now he would let John take the lead and define the limits. However, Sherlock expected to change things a bit in a near future.

When they arrived at the lake house, John pulled up first and got out of the car quickly to hug Mike who was waiting for him outside. Sherlock stood aside, watching. Of course he wasn’t a fan of anyone touching his John, but he knew Mike wasn’t a threat, so he avoided scowling and just let the boys take their time. John was the first to pull away, his eyes narrowed when he realized Mike was panting and shaking. “Tell me what happened, Mike. Please.”

“John, I—You have to understand, t-there was nothing I could do to stop it. The boys went nuts. Se—“

“Hey, Mike, I know how stupid Sebastian and Victor can be, okay? They’re bigger than you, I know whatever happened wasn’t your fault. It’s fine. Now tell me, please. How’s Henry?” John’s voice was calm and controlled, and Sherlock was so proud of his boy, because he knew how anxious John was really feeling. “You want to come in so we can talk?”

“No, no, they are inside… L-let’s just stay here, okay?” Mike said grabbing John’s arm, and then he looked at Sherlock with a bemused expression.

John followed his eyes, “Sherlock, why don’t you go inside and make some tea to calm everybody nerves. Could you do that, please?” John asked in a very pleading tone. Sherlock wanted to tell him he didn’t have to use this tone with him. He would never refuse anything John asked him anyway, unless the request was for him to stay away.

“Of course, call me if you need anything,” Sherlock said.

When Sherlock entered the house it was silent but for some noises coming upstairs. He went to the kitchen and put the kettle on. He opened the fridge to take out milk and butter, and was looking into the drawers to get bread when he heard footsteps. He got up and leaned on the counter, not surprised to find Victor staring at him. It took Sherlock one single look at the boy to realize what he had done. He couldn’t help a little smile, “Hello, Victor.”

“Sherlock, I wasn’t expecting you here, but I’m glad you are, of course,” the boy said with a smirk, and started to walk towards the kitchen.

“You’re glad? Why?” Sherlock asked innocently while he took some pieces of bread out of the package.

“Well, I think we got along pretty well there at that restaurant. I was looking forward to meeting you again.” Victor stopped beside Sherlock, he had his back against the counter and his eyes were nothing but flirtatious.

Sherlock didn’t know what he wanted to do more: throw up or laugh out loud. How could Victor be so blind not to see Sherlock belonged to John? And how could he be so cold to flirt after killing one of his friends? One of John’s friends! Not that Sherlock gave a damn about Henry, he was expecting something to happen, he just didn’t expect it to be so soon and in such a cold way. Plus, he knew John would be upset, which was somewhat good because he would be able to comfort him. Then again, his fragile boy would be heartbroken, which was never a good thing.  This made Sherlock want to speed things up a little, even if it got a bit more chaotic. Mycroft could take care of any messes anyway.

Sherlock smirked, “Really? I’m not sure about that.”

“What makes you say that?” Victor arched one eyebrow.

Sherlock shrugged, “You and Sebastian seemed really close… In fact, he glared at me when you were leaving that night. So I thought ‘I have no chance with this one’, and you have no idea how that bothered me.” Sherlock got closer to Victor and their hands almost touched, “because I was really… Interested. In. You.” Sherlock whispered the last part slowly in the boy’s ear.

Victor’s mouth turned into an ‘o’, “That son of a bitch!” He turned to Sherlock, “I have nothing going on with him. We used to be friends, now we’re not even that.”

The kettle whistled and Sherlock headed to turn it off, “Why not?”

“Well, some things happened and I decided he’s not a very good… Person. Funny how time shows you how people really are,” Victor said, looking to the floor.

“Funny indeed,” Sherlock said while preparing their teas. He knew exactly how John liked his already. He had learned almost everything he could about his blonde, and soon enough, it would all be his to keep. “Those kind of people are the most dangerous, you know?”

“What kind of people?”

“The ones who were your friend before. The ones that know things about you that nobody else knows. Once the friendship is over they can become your worst enemy. This is something my brother used to tell me, which is why he said he had no friends.” That last bit was true. Sherlock really didn’t want to be near any humans, until John came into his life.

“You’re saying that Sebastian may use things he knows to… To harm me somehow? Do you think h-he would do that?” Victor said, a little more nervous now. Sherlock had to fight a grin.

“Well, I cannot be sure, but that’s how humans react to certain situations, right? You’ll always have to keep an eye open just in case.” Sherlock sounded so natural, his acting impeccable.

Victor stared into space for a while, mouth hanging open. Until he finally snapped out of it and said, “So what should one do about it?”

“Oh, you can resume the friendship or… You can make sure he won’t tell anyone.” Sherlock gave one cup to Victor, who took it without paying attention.

“I cannot be friends with him again, we—I really shouldn’t, and he wouldn’t want to anyway. But h-how would I make sure he won’t talk? That’s not possible, is it?”

Sherlock tilted his head to the side holding both Mike’s and John’s cup of tea, “I had a migraine once, the worst pain I have ever felt. I thought it was impossible for the pain to go away until my brother gave me two pills of Metoprolol and the ache was gone in a few minutes. Although I heard later that this medicine should be avoided by asthmatics.” Sherlock made a strategic pause and then continued, “So you see, it’s only impossible until you figure it out. You just need to really want it.”

Victor looked confused but Sherlock knew his mind would settle the information soon enough. Walking away from the kitchen to the yard, he turned one last time, “There’s enough tea for you and Sebastian, if you want to give him some.”

\--

John could not believe what he just heard. He sat on one of the balcony chairs, his hands grabbing his hair, eyes wide opened. “Do you know the exact spot they threw the body in the lake?”

“Uh, yeah, but… You’re not thinking of…” Mike was seated beside him, hands sweating.

“We need to tell the police, Mike, out of respect for Henry.” John’s voice was low and weak.

Henry Knight was such a kind boy, so young and promising. John liked him very much, he had even gone to the boy’s house a couple of times to study or just listen to music. John was happy to have Henry amongst his friends, and now he was dead. Dead by his others friends’ hands. He was feeling sad and angry, he wanted to cry so badly but he also wanted to go inside and scream at Sebastian and Victor. John could never imagine they would be able to act that way. He could, maybe, understand the accident, but not the dumped body.

“But they will know I did nothing while they—“

“Mike! What do you think Henry’s parents will do if they find out their son disappeared? They won’t buy the boy’s excuses. Then, the police will find out and THEN you’ll be fucked, you, me and the boys. We should— Oh.” John was interrupted by Sherlock’s arrival with two cups of tea. He took his while Sherlock gave the other to Mike.

“Everything okay?” Sherlock asked while he sat next John on the other side of the chair.

“Not really. Actually everything is pretty bad. Maybe it would be better if you left,” John said firmly, sounding more annoyed than sad. He didn’t mean to be rude to Sherlock, but he surely wasn’t going to put the boy in the middle of the mess.

Sherlock opened his mouth to answer but at that moment a noise caught their attention. It was very dark and all they could see was a bike being thrown on the ground and a limping form coming fast in their direction. John stood up in alarm when the balcony’s lights illuminated Bill’s drunken face. He had something in his hand that John couldn’t identify from his point of view. Sherlock, however, appeared to recognize it.

He pushed John back and stood between the boy and Bill’s wasted figure. “Stop right there, Bill. You don’t want to do anything foolish.”

John touched Sherlock’s back but the boy didn’t move, so he tilted his head from behind Sherlock’s shoulder and then he could clearly see a gun in Bill’s hand. Where did he get one? Why was he holding one? _Oh no._ “Bill! Please, don’t do anything stupid, please. Bill, you’re in no condition to—“

Sherlock stepped back and pushed John’s body back again, shielding him with his lean body. Bill suddenly gave a loud laugh, throwing his head back. He was so drunk he struggled to climb the balcony’s stairs, but all the time his gun hand pointed at the three boys, especially towards Sherlock. “Oh, John, I’ll show you just how wrong you are for believing this freak.” Bill’s words were stumbling and slurred by the alcohol, “I’ll make sure you see what he truly is.”

The loud cracking noise took everyone by surprise.


	9. And you can tell me how vile I already know that I am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi people!
> 
> First of all, thank you for the kudos/comments/bookmarks, they all mean the world to me!
> 
> Second, my beautiful beta couldn't edit this week's chapter so I edited it myself. And well... I'm not a native English speaker so I ask you to -please- be nice to me and forgive my mistakes this time. I'm sorry about that, I hope it doesn't disturb too much in your reading.
> 
> Only another chapter after this one and we're done. And yes, things are getting chaotic!
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it (:

 

Seconds after they heard the noise a body fell down on the yard, few meters from the balcony where they were standing. They all jumped a bit with the shocking scene. It took some moments for John to realize it was Victor lying there, blood all over his face and apparently several parts of his body broken. John couldn’t move and he couldn’t trust what his eyes were seeing. Sherlock reached a hand to John, without moving too much, after all Bill was still the gun bearer. John took his hand and squeezed, he felt dizzy. He looked to Mike who was beside him, his friend stood his hands and looked at Bill.

“Let me check him, okay? I’ll just check him.” Mike said carefully.

Bill just nodded, his drunk state and the shock helping his slowness. Mike walking to the body, crouching next to Victor’s head and touching his bloody neck, looking for pulse. He then touched the boy’s twisted wrist. When Mike stood up, John knew what he was going to say, he could read through his body movements, he knew his best friend too well. That didn’t stop him from shivering though. Sherlock probably deduced the truth too, for he held John’s hand tighter, reassuring. Mike stepped aside, coming back to where he first was. Bill’s eyes tried to be at all the three boys at the same time, which gave him an even worse mad looking aspect.

“He’s dead”, Mike said in one tired breath, voice hoarse. “We should go upstairs, God knows what happened there.”

Bill’s expression was confused, John could hear the gears working in his mind. “Bill, please, let us go upstairs, we need to see Sebastian. Please?” John asked, giving two steps to his right so Bill could see his pleading eyes.

“Mike can go.” Bill simply said.

“But—What if something happens? I should go with him, Bill. Please? I won’t try anything.”

Bill seemed to considerate for a moment, “Let’s all go there then.” He gestured for them to enter the house before him. Mike was the first one, John right behind him, Sherlock after John and Bill pointing the gun at Sherlock’s back was the last one. John tried to remain calm as he followed Mike upstairs, he was afraid what he was going to find there. Sebastian had clearly thrown Victor through the window, but as they were getting closer to the boy’s bedroom everything appeared to be way too calm and John only got more worried. Mike finally pushed the door open and a strong smell hit their noses.

“Oh shit”, Mike exclaimed.

When John entered the room he didn’t have to be Sherlock to deduce what had happened. The window was broken alright, many pieces of glass all over the floor; there were objects spread around the room, like they were thrown on purpose and not bumped by accident; a puddle of vomit next to the messed up bed, but no sign of Sebastian. They all stayed in silence for some moment just looking around until Sherlock spoke. “He is in the bathroom. If you notice, there is a trail of vomit droplets leading outside the bedroom and to the corridor.”

They all looked back, and Bill stepped aside so they could head to the bathroom. When John entered there after Sherlock, he had to cover his face with his hands at the sight. Sherlock held John and kissed his hair, but quickly pulled away when Bill clicked the gun safety. Mike didn’t bother to check for pulse, they all could see Sebastian was choked on his own regurgitation, body soaked and blue next to the tub. “What the fuck happened?” Bill asked, his words a little scrambled.

“Didn’t you see the broken cup of tea in the bedroom? There is a strong smell of medicine in the vomit, Victor probably tried to an overdose on Sebastian. He started to be sick, realized what Victor had done, pulls him out of the window and then runs here to try to expel it, but he convulsed before he could do anything else, choking on his own vomit.” Sherlock said, his voice low but firm.

“It’s on you”, Bill whispered behind them. “It’s your fault!” Bill shouted now, holding the gun with both hands, aimed on Sherlock’s heart.

“What are you talking about, Bill? This is all on Sebastian and Victor, they were probably high all the time!” John exclaimed walking towards Bill, but Sherlock’s arm got in his way, blocking his passage to Bill.

“No, John! You’re blinded by his words and charms, but he is a psychopathic fucker!” Bill growled, his entire face red and his gun hand slightly trembling.

“Bill, stop this nonsense, you’ll regret this later. Please, just stop!” John begged.

“Bill, we have a lot to deal with without you pointing a gun at us, so we can talk aft--” Mike said.

Bill’s head shook heavily, “No no no, I’ll make him tell you the truth! He is a liar bastard, John!” The athlete stepped forward, his gun now real close to Sherlock’s chest. “Tell him! Tell John! Tell everything you’ve done to steal him, tell how you humiliated me at the restaurant that night! If you don’t, I’ll shoot you right here. I promise, you fuck!”

John had tears in his eyes and a knot on his throat. “Bill…” He managed to say, but it sounded broken and weak.

“TELL JOHN NOW OR I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Bill screamed, making John’s body shudder.

Sherlock was perfectly still, John could only see his back but he knew that his expression was probably calm and blank, like there was no one promising to kill him, like they weren’t standing next to one of John’s dead friends. Sherlock kept quiet, and for a terrible second John was sure Bill was going to shoot him for the athlete expression was pure hate and he made a brusque movement with his shoulders, although before he could do anything, Sherlock stroke him on the arm and John heard the ‘crack’ and a bullet crossing the tiles. He closed his eyes and curled on the floor, he felt Mike doing the same beside him. Then John heard two more shots. His heart almost stopped.

One minute later, or perhaps one second, or one century, John wasn’t sure of anything anymore, he felt strong hands clasping his face and that familiar voice, “John, John! Are you alright? John, please, look at me!”

John slowly opened his crying eyes and stared at Sherlock’s beautiful face. Beautiful and alive. John breathed relieved and hugged the boy tightly. He couldn’t say anything for some moments, both of them clinging to each other like there was no tomorrow. Until Mike’s voice echoed through the bathroom, “You killed him…”

John pulled away a little so he could look at Bill’s body. One bullet hole in his stomach and another in his head. “Oh god”, John whined. Too many horrifying things happening in one night to his head stay completely sane, but somehow he was still in his full mental capacities, though his reflexes were slower and his heart was pounding fast inside his sweating chest. Sherlock helped him to stand up, his legs were shaking so the man held him tight and protectively against his thin body.

“He was going to shoot me, it was self-defense.” Sherlock said whilst caressing John’s back.

“Why did you come here?” Mike asked with a bemused expression.

“What do you mean? I came for John. He was worried and I wanted to make sure everything was okay here.” Sherlock said calmly.

“You said Victor put the medicines in Seb’s tea. You’re the one who made tea.” Mike’s brow furrowed, “Did you talk to him? What did you say to him?”

“He got down, I offered him tea and then I left. I didn’t even see him taking the cup.” Sherlock said, his voice was a bit annoyed now at all Mike’s questions. John was trying to breathe, he just couldn’t say anything. There were too many bodies, too many dead friends for him to say or do anything at all. He just kept looking at the two boys while safe in Sherlock’s strong embrace.

“You know Henry is dead, don’t you? You knew what was going to happen. It seems crazy, but I think Bill was right.” Mike put his hands on his waist, his voice got firmer and more determinate, “That night at the restaurant, you planted the seed. You planted the discord seed!”

“Oh no. John, are all of your friends daft?” Sherlock asked while pressing a kiss to the top of the blonde’s head.

“You must think we are all daft indeed. Bill was desperate and he acted wrong, but seeing things clearer now I think he was the sanest of the others! The pile of corpses you left behind your track!” Mike nearly shouted the last part. Sherlock sighed but Mike continued, “I saw your eyes when you shot Bill! That was what made everything clear as water to me! You were so certain, not scared, not acting on self-defense, no no, you calculated everything. I think Bill even helped you to accelerate things! John, you—“

“Why don’t you shut up, can’t you see you’re distressing John? Go downstairs and bring my cellphone, would you?” Sherlock said in a commanding tone.

“I’ll go downstairs alright, but I’ll call the police! One thing I should’ve done long ago.” Mike started to move towards the door but Sherlock’s voice stopped him.

“No, you won’t. That won’t be wise, at least not yet. Bring me my phone and then I’ll tell you when to call the police.” Sherlock held John tighter.

“Who will you call to?” Mike hissed.

“My brother, he will—“

“Oh of course! He will help hide your mess. And jeez, what a mess! No no. John may be in shock now but I’ll make him see what a manipulative bastard you are.” Mike said, disgust in his tone.

John pulled away from Sherlock a bit and stepped to Mike, Sherlock’s arms still around him. “Do you really think that, Mike? Why would he do these things?” John asked, his voice weak and cracking.

“To keep you to himself. To make sure you stay with, I don’t know, something like that! But he—“

Sherlock interrupted Mike, “I had enough of it”, he started to walk, leading John with his hands on the boy’s shoulders outside the bathroom. Mike let them pass through the threshold without questioning, probably agreeing it was a good thing to get out of the place. Sherlock took John to the bedroom he used to share with Bill. At the thought and at seeing his ex-boyfriend’s stuff on the room, his stomach twisted and his heart beat faster. Sherlock laid him down on the bed gently, but he pushed the taller boy’s arms away and sat. “Mike!” He called. Mike entered the room running. “Don’t leave me alone.” He asked his friend, tears filling his eyes again.

“I won’t, John. We will survive this.” Mike promised.

Sherlock froze in front of him.

 If John had to choose a side, he would always choose his best friend’s side, he trusted him more than anyone in the world. And if he stopped to think, to _really_ think about it, what did he know about Sherlock? The boy was a mysterious shadow. John felt attracted by him in the second their eyes met, and he surely felt good with him, he liked their moments together. But he only knew him for a few days, and in these few days so many terrible things had happened. Things that would change his life forever. So, if his best friend was suspecting Sherlock manipulated all the boys into killing each other, manipulated _him_ into leaving Bill, manipulated Bill in going desperate, then John would believe him. Especially when the evidences were starting to fall on his head like raindrops from a dark cloud that was hovering him way too long.

John suddenly stood up and passed Sherlock to stand beside Mike. They were ready to get the hell out of the room and call the police when they heard the click.

“You’re not going anywhere, John.”


	10. If it makes you less sad, I will die by your hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> So, we finally arrived to the end of the story! I need to thank you all for supporting me all the way; your comments, kudos and bookmarks inspired me more than you imagine. 
> 
> I also want to thank my beta Nightfall24 for editing and reviewing most of the story, you're great don't ever forget that! She couldn't beta this last one though, so I'll ask you again to (please) be nice and forgive my mistakes, I hope it doesn't disturb your reading!
> 
> Well, that's it. I'm sorry for any feels the end might cause. I really hope you enjoy it! ;*

 

Sherlock couldn’t let them see what he was feeling. From the outside he looked calm, indifferent and impassive, but from the inside he was chewing himself, the strongest agony he had ever had until that moment. He saw in John’s eyes all the fear and rejection the blonde felt towards him. That was wrong, that was so wrong. John should know he belonged to Sherlock. John should see they were made for each other, if there was such thing. John needed to realize how perfect they were together. John wasn’t supposed to try to run away from Sherlock. He felt like shooting Mike in his brain right there so he would stop poisoning his boy’s mind, but he knew if he did that it wouldn’t help his situation with John, it would only scare him more. But Sherlock would show John just how wrong he was for staying on Mike’s side, he would make John love him again. No matter what, John would be his. Unfortunately, though, he had to point the gun to the boys so they wouldn’t fly away from the room. He couldn’t kill Mike now, and obviously he would never hurt John, but he needed make his point clear and that was the only way to do it.

“Sherlock…” John said in almost a whisper. “Please, stop it.”

“No, John. If I stop now you’ll go away.” Sherlock said, proud of how his voice was cool. “You need to understand, John. Mike is wrong, he wants to bring us apart.”

“Don’t listen to him, John, he’s crazy!” Mike shouted.

Sherlock only stared at John, his love’s face was red and had tears sliding through. Sherlock just wanted to walk and hug him, say everything was okay, that they would be alright. Although if he did that John might pull away and Sherlock wasn’t sure what he would do if he was physically rejected again. “You felt so good with me, John. I know you did. You told me you were mine, remember? That doesn’t have to change. We can be happy here, just the two of us.”

John swallowed hard before speaking, “D-Did you do all of that just to keep me here? Y-You really did that just so I’d stay here with you?”

Sherlock considered what to speak. The truth would hurt John, but telling him lies would do nothing to make it better, he still had a gun pointed at them, it was past that point now. “John. They were not good for you. They were in the way of our happiness, you know that. They would add nothing to your future. It was necessary.”

“They were my friends, Sherlock! I loved them, all of them!” John exclaimed, his face twisted in pain.

“They didn’t love you back, John. They were stupid common people, so different from you and me.” Sherlock had a pleading tone, so John would see how honest and serious he was being. “Mike was the only one I could see that cared about you, that’s why I don’t want to hurt him.”

Mike scoffed, “Yes, that’s why you’re pointing the gun at me.”

“No, I’m aiming it on you because John needs to understand what I would do to be with him.”

John rubbed his face with both his hands, his body was shivering slightly, “Put the gun down, Sherlock. Please, put the gun down and we’ll talk better, yes?” John said with a shaking voice.

Sherlock wished he could do that. It hurt to watch John suffer, but he knew the boy was only trying to distract him, that in the moment Sherlock drops the weapon, John and Mike would escape him. And if they escaped him, they would try to call the police, forcing Sherlock to kill Mike and kidnap John. He didn’t want that, he wanted John to go with him willingly. Besides, he was annoyed already that he would have to ask Mycroft for help, imagine if he had to murder Mike without any good excuse. His brother would force him to go to a foreign board school and he would never see John again, which was unbearable. “Sorry, but I can’t do that, John. I will only put the gun down when you realize you still love me, when you say yes. And I feel you’re being honest.”

John sighed and his hands shook while he passed them through his hair, “How can I, Sherlock? You’re not helping, you know? How can I be with you after knowing what you really are?”

“A bloody psychopath”, Mike muttered.

Sherlock ignored Mike, “What I really am? You don’t understand, John. What I truly am is yours. I am yours, John, since the very first moment I saw you. And I know you felt the same, you _feel_ the same. You’re just confused.” Sherlock took a deep breath, “I don’t want to do that, but I’m desperate. Desperate to make you see, John. Can’t you understand?”

“But I see now, Sherlock. I see it clearly.” John cleared his throat, dried his tears and squared his shoulders. “You are sick and obsessed. I am not, I am completely healthy. Therefore I can’t be in a relationship with you. I let my body guide me and I didn’t think, I didn’t realize in what I was getting myself into. Yes, what we had was nice, but I never loved you, Sherlock. How could I? I barely know you! And now that I got a glimpse of your mind, I must say… I regret ever accepting your invitation to that restaurant, no, I regret even entering that boutique! If I hadn’t then all my friends – then Bill – would still be alive! Maybe it was all my fault it happened because I let you in. Yes, so shoot me instead. I don’t care. I don’t think I will be able to handle the guilt anyway.”

 Sherlock felt like he was being stabbed in the heart. No, he felt like his guts were being ripped out of his body. He was a porcelain doll breaking into pieces. He always could tell when people were lying to him, and so he clearly saw that there were no lies in John’s speech, and it destroyed him. He thought it was true after all what people said, that words hurt more than actions. But despite what John might think, Sherlock knew it wasn’t the blonde’s fault. He was crying on Sherlock’s chest when Mike opened his mouth and started rumbling things against him. Sherlock squeezed the gun and pointed it directly to Mike’s head. Then he shot him.

\--

“JOHN!” Mike screamed.

Everything happened so fast. One second Sherlock was aiming his head and in the other John was jumping in front of him. The bullet that was destined to his brain was now pierced into John’s. And though Mike had the instinct to shout his best friend’s name, he could do only that. His body was refusing to move, his mouth was objecting to shut up. The sight before him was unbelievable. John’s body laid on the floor, a bleeding dot in his forehead, his eyes were open but there was no gleam there, no life.

It took some moments for Sherlock to finally move, he seemed as stunned as Mike, or perhaps more. He let the gun fall on the floor and in a second he had dropped to his knees, pulling John’s lifeless body to his lap. Mike watched frozen with his eyes wide, and he felt that in any moment he might also collapse onto the floor. Sherlock was touching and kissing every single part of John he could reach, he also whispered some things Mike couldn’t or didn’t want to hear. Soon the dark haired boy had his face all covered with blood and tears, and Mike took some time to understand that he was shouting now instead of whispering.

“You can’t leave me here, John! NO, oh John, I’m so sorry! What have I done, what—No, please, how can I--!” He sounded desperate and honestly lost. Mike didn’t care. Mike didn’t pity him. He had no right to mourn John, he was the responsible for his best friend’s death in all possible ways. He killed John in the moment he saw him in that store.

Mike put together all the strength he had and flew from the room. He ran as fast as he could not thinking much, ignoring the bodies on his way down to the living room. When he got there, he jumped to the first cellphone he saw and quickly dialed 999. When they answered, Mike couldn’t control his breath and anxiety, “T-There’s b-been several mu-murders…” He started to sob and couldn’t finish his sentences. The woman on the line asked him to be calm so he could tell them everything so they could send help. He did in the way he could, told her about the bodies and killings and where they were, told that the killer was still in the house. She said she was going to send the entire Yard and the local police there as soon as she could, she also asked him to hide outside without making a sound. When she hung up he had to take his glasses off and clean them with the hem of his shirt, they were all blurred from his tears.

Mike didn’t want to go upstairs, he didn’t have the stomach to see his best friend - the boy he loved - in that way again, also he didn’t want to face the monster that did it. Oddly, things were quite calm up there. Mike couldn’t hear any sobs and screams anymore. He stood up and uselessly narrowed his eyes to the ceiling. He was finding that weird. _What if Sherlock get down and shoot me before the police arrive?_ Maybe he should go outside and do as the lady said. It was then that he heard it. One single shot.

Mike froze on the spot. Was that what he was thinking? Would Sherlock do it? He had to go and see for himself. Slowly he went upstairs, walking as calm as possible through the corridor, trying not to look at the bathroom where he knew had the remains of Sebastian and Bill. When he arrived at the main bedroom, he was surprised and yet not surprised at all with the scene that was shown to him.

John’s body wasn’t on the floor anymore. He was laid on the bed with Sherlock’s corpse spooning him, their legs entwined. Mike could see the gun was still in the dark haired boy’s hand and fresh blood was leaking from his head staining the white sheets. Despite everything they actually seemed in peace. Suddenly Mike caught himself feeling sympathetic towards Sherlock, and he hated it. Maybe John and Sherlock could have been happy if Sherlock was healthy; maybe John would have loved him back, and waited for him to move to London, and then they would have lived together; maybe they could have had their love story. And also maybe Victor would have been the physicist he dreamed to be; maybe Sebastian would have built the skyscraper he told Mike he had envisioned; maybe Henry would have architected the building; maybe Bill would have played for the official rugby team; maybe Mike would have been able to have a good night sleep in his life.

As Mike heard the police cars outside, the only thing he thought was that all was in vain. He had lost all of his friends and the most important person in his life for nothing. Nobody got anything in the end. Everybody lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the titles were taken from the song 'The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot' by Brand New (although I prefer Andrew Belle's version). It's beautiful and sad, if you don't know, I definitely suggest you to go listen to it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading it! I'd love to know what you thought about the chapter, so comments will make my day brighter (;


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